Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Productivity Commission recently released a report into gambling which showed that Australians lost a massive $12 billion last year playing the pokies.

This is an astronomical figure but one which did not come as a surprise to Family First which has been campaigning on the issue of gambling for a long time.

Last year, Family First introduced both the Poker Machine Harm Minimisation Bill 2008 and the Poker Machine Harm Reduction Tax Bill 2008 which contain a raft of important measures aimed at reducing the terrible harm caused by gambling.

Sadly, the Rudd Government has been unwilling to address the issues facing problem gamblers.

Also sadly, for too long Australia has paid the high social costs from the wreckage that pokies cause to problem gamblers.

The release of the Productivity Commission’s report has once again highlighted just how serious this issue of gambling is, revealing that more than half a million Australians are at significant or moderate risk of suffering gambling problems.

What’s more, Australia’s gambling problem is a crisis which is costing this country up to $5.6 billion dollars each year.

The problems associated with gambling are not limited to gamblers themselves but actually ripple throughout the community to family members, friends and work colleagues. For every single problem gambler, between 5 to 10 other people are affected.

There is a close link between poker machines and problem gambling with figures showing that poker machines account for 65 percent of total gambling revenue and 75 to 80 percent of problem gamblers.

What is clear from these figures linking poker machines and problem gambling is that there is no excuse not to act.

The need to act is backed up by the Productivity Council’s report which states that given the significant social costs associated with problem gambling, even policy measures with modest efficacy will often be worthwhile.

In fact, a 10 percent sustained reduction in harm from gambling could provide a gain to society of nearly half a billion dollars annually.

This bill, the Protecting Problem Gamblers Bill, which is being put forward today would go a long way towards achieving this and addressing the issue of pokies addiction.

The measures set out in this Bill would do 2 important steps.

Place a limit on bets to $1 per spin

Establish load up limits of $20

Limiting bets to $1 is a sensible policy because it would help constrain the spend rate of problem gamblers. This would have little impact on recreational gamblers but it would act as an important tool to help minimise the losses suffered by problem gamblers.

Only 2.3 percent of non-problem gamblers bet above $1 per spin, however, this figure is higher for problem gamblers. This measure is, therefore, part of a carefully targeted strategy to prevent the harm caused to problem gamblers.

Putting in place a load up limits of $20 would act as a break on high intensity play and would stop gamblers from filling up their machines with high multiple denomination notes.

By building in small breaks in play, problem gamblers would have a chance to stop and think about their playing intensity. This is particularly important for people playing the pokies for long durations.

Similarly, this measure to have $20 load up limits would not impact upon recreational gamblers, however, it could have enormous benefits to those gamblers for whom the stakes are much higher.

One of the biggest problems facing gamblers at the moment is that there is no appetite amongst the state governments to reign in the incredible amount of money which Australians lose on pokies each year.

The state governments have become hopelessly addicted to the millions of dollars they receive in gambling revenue and are unwilling to do anything which would jeopardise this source of funding.

Like all addicts, the state governments don’t care about the costs involved in feeding their addiction so long as they get their fix.

It is now incumbent of the Federal Government to step in and address this shocking pokies plague which is wrecking families and communities.

The Federal Government needs to be proactive in its approach towards gambling rather than sitting back and hoping that the state governments will finally have the sense to detox themselves.

This bill does not seek to ban poker machine gambling, but only to minimise some of the awful harm that comes from the pokies.

Family First is determined to ensure that we do more than just sweep this issue under the carpet because Australian families and the Australian community deserve better than that.